Bush Beans

Bush Beans | The Modern Bean

Bush Beans were "invented" by man, when he first decided to grow food because his big feet hurt from waking the Earth. Sound familiar? We haven't changed that much in 100,000 years. We invented a few new varieties of beans, went to the moon and back, shop at the local WallMart and still our big feet hurt. So hybridizing a few plants more than a few hundred years ago didn't help my feet much, but I do enjoy the Purple Bush Bean.

Purple Bush Bean produces long slightly curved dark purple pods that turn dark green when cooked. Excellent flavor and string-less but best picked when pods are young. They race up their supports, burst into shocking magenta flower, and then produce hundreds of gorgeous regal purple beans. The pods are attractive and round with a waxy finish. Ready to pick in around 52 days, they can be eaten whole or sliced. The taste is wonderfully fresh with a crisp, clean aftertaste and the fact that they are also stringless heightens the culinary experience. Best picked when around the thickness of a pencil and as with most legumes, the more you pick the better your crop will be.

Black Turtle is a classic soup bean, that stores well and is an important sources of protein in vegetarian diets. It is especially well known in Latin American countries like Costa Rica."Pura Vida"! Black Bean flowers are esthetically pleasing as well as tasty. If you overproduced the plant, then start putting the flowers in your salads. Otherwise wait to harvest and store them as long as you like in the cupboard. Black Turtle Bush bean bods, ready to harvest tout a creamy white colored pod. "Black beans in a white pod?", you ask... Will nature never quite the jokes? I hope not. Phaseolus vulgaris Black Turtle is a classic soup bean, that can be stored well for up to a year or more, so don’t worry about planting too many. It’s primary use is a dry shell bean. Great for the breakfast feast, eggs and Gillo Pinto. This hardy bush type has great disease resistance and does well even in drought and heat! If picked young, pods can also be used as a snap bean. It’s an oval bean that is jet black. It mature in about 90 days in a medium to large container. Black beans are widely used throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and the southern United States, especially in Florida and Texas. Black bean soups, stews and sauces are very common in Latin American countries. Black beans are becoming more popular in the United States, due to increased immigration from Latin American countries, and the culinary traditions these immigrants bring with them. As are all legumes, Black Turtle beans are high in protein. Dried beans are important sources of protein in vegetarian diets especially. But note, it’s protein is incomplete and does not contain all 9 amino acids. Other grains will provide the missing amino acids or small amounts of dairy products, meat, poultry or fish. Fish contain the complete essential proteins. Long ago, via the 3 sisters style of planting in Central America and southern Mexico, corn supplied the missing amino acids, and squash was an additional source of vitamins. Black beans, as are all dried beans, are a good sources of starches, fiber, B vitamins, iron, zinc, phosphorus, complex carbohydrates and calcium. About half of the calcium is lost during cooking. High percentages of the other nutrients remain however, even after cooking. Using Black Beans Cleaning Black Beans Black beans, like all dried beans, can be soaked before cooking. This hydration helps to reduce the cooking time, but it does effect nutrient content and flavor adversely. Because they are small, 2-4 hours soaking in cold water should suffice. Drain, and cook as per recipe. If you don’t have the time, boil the beans in water for 1-3 minutes, turn off heat, cover the pot and let them sit for one hour. Drain and proceed as per recipe. However, there is a problem with this quick soaking (boiling for 1-3 minutes) method. Hot water increases the solubility of the water soluble nutrients, and softens the cell membranes of the beans, further accelerating the loss of these nutrients. This should be a consideration, because of the long cooking time during which more nutrients are lost. Cold soaked and cooked at a very gentle simmer, beans retain most of their nutrients, which are considerable. Cooking Black Beans Drain the soaking water and add cold water, 1 part beans to 2 or 3 parts cold water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a very slow simmer, so the beans stay in their jackets. Simmer for 2 hours. See the video above for a great bean...

Beans Produce their Own Fertilizer Bean Seed Inoculation helps legumes such as peas and beans to “fix” their own nitrogen. Beans produce much of their own nitrogen needs via a symbiotic relationship with a group of bacteria called rhizobacteria or rhizobium. Rhizobium is a soil bacteria that fix nitrogen for legume plants. Our atmosphere contains more than 75% nitrogen gas (N2). They convert the nitrogen gas in the atmosphere into ammonia nitrogen NH3+, a form usable by the plant. Bean Seed Inoculation is important so as to ensure this bacteria-root dance. Colorado State University has a very well written page on Bean Seed Inoculation, if you are interested in reading the technical description of this process. Inoculating the seeds with Rhizobium bacteria before planting is helpful. Multifaceted Symbiosis All legumes, including beans, interact with the Rhizobium and interchanging metabolic fluids. Legume plants have the ability to form a symbiotic relationship with rhizobium bacteria. Inside the nodules, the bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen (N2) to ammonia NH3+, providing organic nitrogenous compounds to the plant. In return, the plant provides the bacteria with organic compounds made by photosynthesis. The bean’s roots exude certain carbohydrates for the bacteria and in return the bacteria produce nutrients. The carbohydrates are basic food stuffs for the bacteria. This encourages the rhizobia to adhere to it. The bacteria multiply on the roots surface and cause more root hairs to grow. On these root hairs begins a process called ‘nodule formation”. The bacteria colonize plant cells within root nodules. Inside these small tumors the bacteria induce specialized genes required for nitrogen fixation. This important function allows bean plants to convert nitrogen from the gaseous form found in the air N2, into a usable form. This allows beans to use this nitrogen for plant growth. Without these beneficial bacteria, beans cannot fix nitrogen. Soils normally do not contain many rhizobium bacteria. So it is necessary to inoculate the legume with the proper strains of bacteria prior to planting the seeds. Bean Seed Inoculation is a low-cost process which returns benefits many times higher than the costs. Bean Seed Inoculation | Rhizobium Bacteria Bean Seed Inoculation couldn’t be easier. There is no special procedure really. Take 500ml of the OST Rhizobium, which contains at least 109 rizobios/gram and add 2 tablespoons of crude sugar. Place your seeds in it for a few minutes. Some seeds like a dunking for a few hours. This all depends on the state of the seeds being planted. Imported, older seeds could need a bit more time to hydrate than fresh seeds recently harvested. Afterwards, just plant the seeds. There is no drenching of soil or anything more to do. If your supply of the inoculate is limited, then you might want to reuse the liquid. Store it away in a cool place for the next batch. It’ is always better to store your containers of fungus and bacterias in the refrigerator if your not performing Bean Seed Inoculation...

Equations and Symbols

Get Up-to-Speed on Microorganisms

Soluable Salt Ranges

Keeping up on your soluble salt range is important. Always have an instrument at hand to check your nutrient levels. The below chart is a general guide as to what levels are acceptable or not.

Desireable

Permisable

Dangerous

EC

.75-2 mS

2-3 mS

3 mS & ↑

PPM

500-1300

1300-2000

2000 & ↑

Electrical Conductivity (EC) of a solution is a measure of ionic compounds dissolved in water. Organic Nutrients are ionic compounds. Another name for ionic compounds is salts. Assuming the water had very little EC before you added the liquid fertilizer, measuring the EC will tell us how much fertilizer we have in our liquid. EC is commonly measured in milli-siemens (mS) and/or Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) expressed in Parts Per Million (PPM). Both will give you the same information of how much fertilizer is in your liquid. The EC and PPM are always in relation. So stating the EC and PPM is redundant. The relationship is 1 EC (measured in mS) = 650 PPM.

About BioChar Pyrolysis

Quote from:
Daniel D. Warnock & Johannes Lehmann & Thomas W. Kuyper & Matthias C. Rillig
"Biochar is a term reserved for the plant biomass derived
materials contained within the black carbon
(BC) continuum. This definition includes chars and
charcoal, and excludes fossil fuel products or geogenic
carbon (Lehmann et al. 2006). Materials
forming the BC continuum are produced by partially
combusting (charring) carbonaceous source materials,
e.g. plant tissues (Schmidt and Noack 2000; Preston
and Schmidt 2006; Knicker 2007), and have both
natural as well as anthropogenic sources. Restricting the oxygen supply during combustion can prevent complete combustion (e.g., carbon volatilization and
ash production) of the source materials. When plant
tissues are used as raw materials for biochar production,
heat produced during combustion volatilizes a
significant portion of the hydrogen and oxygen, along
with some of the carbon contained within the plant’s
tissues (Antal and Gronli 2003; Preston and Schmidt
2006).... Depending on the temperatures
reached during combustion and the species identity
of the source material, a biochar’s chemical and
physical properties may vary (Keech et al. 2005;
Gundale and DeLuca 2006). For example, coniferous biochars generated at lower temperatures, e.g. 350°C, can contain larger amounts of available nutrients,
while having a smaller sorptive capacity for cations
than biochars generated at higher temperatures, e.g.
800°C (Gundale and DeLuca 2006). Furthermore,
plant species with many large diameter cells in their
stem tissues can lead to greater quantities of macropores
in biochar particles. Larger numbers of macropores
can for example enhance the ability of biochar
to adsorb larger molecules such as phenolic compounds
(Keech et al. 2005)."
Check out the entire report at:
Mycorrhizal Responses to Biochar in Soil–Concepts and Mechanisms"

Biochar & Fungi Relationship

Cation Exchange Capacity Information Blurb

The total CEC is impacted by these factors:
Amount of active humus such as compost, Amount of passive humus such as Biochar, The pyrolysis method of the Biochar added, Was the Biochar activated and/or inoculated? The type and amount of microorganisms, and The overall pH